


But You'll Look Sweet

by oddishly



Category: The Like, Young Veins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-12
Updated: 2010-06-12
Packaged: 2017-10-10 02:22:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/94184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oddishly/pseuds/oddishly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan finds a girl in an apple tree.</p>
            </blockquote>





	But You'll Look Sweet

Z's huge old apple tree was crying. Either that, or it had a very bad cold, because Ryan was sitting right beside it in the grass and all he could hear was a lot of heavy sniffing.

He got to his feet, peering around the tree. 'Hello?'

There was a pause, then another sniff. Ryan craned his neck further. 'Hello? Is anyone there?'

'Hello,' came a wobbly voice at last. 'I'm up here.'

Ryan looked up. Perched a couple of feet above him in the fork of two skinny-looking branches was a girl in a green dress, peeping down at him over the tops of her knees. She shuffled a bit, the tree swaying alarmingly. Ryan frowned and took a step forwards; it looked like she was –

'Ow!' An enormous hardback novel appeared out of nowhere and hit Ryan square between the eyes, and he sat down abruptly against the tree trunk. He blinked at his feet, dazed. The book fell open beside him.

'Oh my –' The tree started swaying again and a couple of apples fell down amid a shower of twigs and leaves. Next minute, the girl jumped down to the ground, slipping on an apple as she landed and falling to her knees. She scrambled upright. 'I'm so sorry,' she said, 'are you okay?'

Ryan took his hand away from his nose and stared at her. 'Are _you_?' The girl's eyes were swollen and red, tear tracks trailing down her face. She gave another great sniff as Ryan watched, and knuckled at her eyes.

'I'm fine,' she said, and gave him a watery grin. She waved a hand at the book. 'Gets me every time.'

'Well, it got me, all right,' said Ryan ruefully, passing the book up to her and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

'I am so sorry,' said the girl again. She took another step towards him, bending down to peer at his nose. 'I don't think it'll bruise,' she said, not sounding very sure about it, 'but we should ask Z for some frozen peas for you anyway.'

Ryan nodded slowly.

'I didn't mean to attack you, you just surprised me, and then I forgot I was holding it, so –'

'It's okay,' said Ryan, smiling in a way he hoped he could pass off as reassuring. 'Um. What are you reading? So I know to avoid it in future?'

'It's _Little Women_. Beth just died, it's – I've read it so many times, and every time I turn into a sobbing wreck of a person.' The girl shrugged a little, smiling at Ryan. She stood up straight again and Ryan's gaze dropped down to her knees, which were very green. 'Shall we go and find Z? She might have something to put on your nose.'

'Or breakfast, I'm starving,' said Ryan, and got to his feet. 'My name's –'

'Ryan,' finished the girl. She smiled at him as they set off towards the house, fishing a bedraggled-looking tissue out of a pocket on her dress and blowing her nose. 'Z said you might come over today. I'm Tennessee, hello.' She held out her free hand for Ryan to shake.

'Right. Right! You're English, of course. I knew that. I wondered if I was ever going to get to meet you.'

'Me too. I think Z's been keeping us apart. Probably to stop things like this happening,' she said, gesturing at Ryan's face. 'Oh – hello, Z. Me and Ryan just bumped into each other. Well, I tried to knock him out first, but now we've exchanged names and everything.'

'So I see,' said Z, standing on the steps of the veranda. She glanced from Ryan's hand on his nose to Tennessee's swollen eyes, looking entirely unsurprised. Ryan gave her a guilty smile, then grinned when he noticed Tennessee doing the same. 'Come inside, then, let's clean you both up a bit.'

'Thank you,' said Tennessee, and winked at Ryan on her way in.

*

Ryan sighed and pushed the hair out of his face before bending down over the coals again. This was the last time he believed Alex when he said he knew how to get a barbeque going. For real.

'They're going to start arriving in a minute,' said Alex from the side. He was watching Ryan with a vaguely interested look on his face. 'Have you tried swearing at it? That normally gets me results.'

'I have been swearing at it,' Ryan told him without looking up. 'You've been listening to me swear at it all afternoon. Without contributing.'

'Eh, you'll get there,' said Alex, shrugging. He helped himself to one of the bagels on the table beside him and took a bite out of it, keeping his eyes fixed on Ryan. 'Mind your flowers,' he said around the bagel as Ryan contorted himself further, gesturing at the plant pots dotted along the path. Ryan pushed himself upright and took a breath, glaring at Alex as the buzzer for the gate sounded in the kitchen.

'I'll go let them in,' said Alex hurriedly, pushing himself off the wall and darting into the house.

'Do,' said Ryan to his back, and turned to the barbeque.

Five minutes later, Ryan huffed a sigh and rubbed an irritated hand across his face. He turned around, blinking at what had become a small army of interested spectators. 'If you keep staring like that, the wind will change, and you'll all be stuck with your mouths hanging open forever.'

'You look like you're wearing war paint,' said one of the girls. 'With the ash all streaked along your face like that.' Ryan got to his feet, scowling and brushing his knees off. The little crowd shuffled and turned around, apparently deciding they were more interested in the alcohol on the table than in Ryan's trials with the barbeque.

'Why didn't you tell us it was fancy dress?' asked Tennessee, walking up to Ryan. 'I would have joined in. I could have brought my bow and arrow along.'

'Tennessee,' said Alex in aghast tones. 'You have a bow and arrow and you didn't bring it with you?'

'A bow and arrow is like a cloak,' Ryan told her. 'Suitable for every occasion.' He smiled at her, hoping he didn't bear too close a resemblance to a scarecrow.

Tennessee beamed at him and reached out to run her thumb above his eyebrow. Ryan stared at her. Then he grinned as she smeared the resulting ash across her cheeks, assuming a fierce expression.

Z's voice floated out from the kitchen, carrying down the steps towards them. 'Oh my god, Ryan, what are you doing with that barbeque?'

'Abandoning it,' Ryan replied without looking away from Tennessee, 'unless you want to try and –'

Z took another step out onto the porch and Ryan glanced across at her briefly. Her eyes landed first on his face, then moved to the barbeque, where they widened. '_Fuck me_, Ryan, you're on fire!' She ran down the steps as Ryan jerked away from the barbeque, craning his neck behind him to see –

'_Shit!_'

Alex leapt at Ryan and tried to yank his shirt off, swearing when three solitary buttons on it refused to give way. 'Take it off, for fuck's sake!'

Ryan wriggled his way out of the shirt and threw it on the path, stamping all along the smoking hemline. Alex joined in with gusto.

When they looked up, the whole of the party was staring at them again, three of the girls smothering giggles. Ryan flickered a glance to the side. Tennessee's lips twitching.

'Ryan Ross, ladies and gentlemen,' said Alex brightly to their audience, and Ryan grinned and bowed.

*

Ryan had a good idea that the last time he played Frisbee was before he'd gotten his first guitar. Now he was here with Jon and Alex and the girls, throwing the disk around in the park just down from his house and trying not to trip over any of the children playing ball around them, and he wondered if he should have let that state of affairs continue. He squinted at the Frisbee as it shot by, continuing on past Tennessee and into the fountain just behind them both.

'Shall I get it?' asked Tennessee brightly, and without waiting for an answer, darted towards the fountain.

'Watch out for the – !' Ryan lunged towards her, grabbing her jacket and yanking her back out of the way of a passing cyclist. Tennessee windmilled her arms in an attempt to stay upright, grabbing Ryan's collar in the process and dragging him forwards. He stumbled, tried to right himself, and fell headfirst over the wall and into the fountain. When he emerged, spluttering and flailing his arms, it was to see Z, Alex and Jon falling over themselves laughing while Tennessee stared through her fingers at him with horrified eyes. Two small girls were giggling at her side. Ryan blinked the water out of his eyes furiously, fighting the urge to sink back below the water and hide until there was nobody left around.

Ryan shook his hair out of his eyes and looked back to the side of the fountain, and Tennessee groaned. She closed her fingers so that all Ryan could see of her face was a sliver of a blush along her jaw line.

'Um.' Ryan tried to get up off his knees, but the tile was slippery under his feet and he fell right back down again.

Alex was actually gasping when Ryan made back onto his knees and looked over at him, bent over and clutching Z's arm for support. Ryan grit his teeth, silently resolving to throw the Frisbee at Alex's head when he made it out of the fountain. He looked over at Tennessee to see her clambering over the wall, landing waist-deep in the water and wading towards him. Her skirts floated up all around her when she stopped in front of him, an anguished expression on her face.

'Hello,' said Ryan.

Tennessee brought her hand up to her face and bit down on her thumb, chewing the knuckle. Ryan suspected she was holding her breath, and grinned at her. 'Nice day for a swim,' he said, and reached out to tickle her behind her knees. Tennessee shrieked as her legs gave from under her, and grabbed Ryan's shoulders to pull him under with her.

Both of them were beaming when they pulled their heads out of the water, gasping for air. Tennessee's hair was streaking down her face and down her back, Ryan's dripping into his eyes, and they sat in the fountain and smiled at each other, panting.

Tennessee's eyes were shining. Ryan's eyes dropped to her mouth, her lips parted in silent laughter. He caught a breath and shook his head at her, not even trying to contain his grin. 'You're trouble,' he told her, and, grabbing the Frisbee as it bobbed behind him, used it to splash her some more.

*

Tennessee attracted the clumsiness in Ryan, it was clear. He even told Z so, in those exact words, one warm afternoon in her garden.

'Well,' said Z, 'isn't it obvious?'

'Not really.'

Z peered at Ryan over the top of her sunglasses. They looked suspiciously similar to Ryan's own sunglasses, the ones he'd been hunting for all week. 'I'm collecting klutzes. God knows what'll happen when you don't need me to get you in a room together anymore. I'll spend all my time traipsing after you and apologising for whatever havoc you've caused between you.'

Ryan opened his mouth to protest, but before he managed it, the doorbell rang. Z got to her feet, waggling her eyebrows at him in a most un-Z like way before she turned around.

'We don't need you to put us in a room together,' Ryan called to her back.

Z turned around, walking backwards for a moment with her eyebrows raised. 'No?'

Ryan pushed himself up off the grass, walking after her into the kitchen. 'No,' he told the coffeemaker as Z headed for the front door. 'We don't.'

'Hi, Ryan,' said Tennessee, smiling wide at him as she swooped past the door on her way outside.

Ryan dropped the mugs he was holding. 'Tennessee – hey, Tenn,' he said, stumbling over the words. 'Good to see you.' He caught sight of his flaming cheeks in the glass of the microwave and made a face at himself, breathing in the lingering apple smell from Tennessee's shampoo.

'Very smooth,' said Alex from the door. Ryan jerked to face him, blinking at the smirk on Alex's lips. Alex patted him on the back as he walked through the kitchen, a grinning Z on his heels.

Ryan turned back to the coffeemaker. 'Oh,' he said faintly.

*

Ryan had a type, and Tennessee Thomas very definitely wasn't it. He liked tiny blonde girls with dark eyes, girls with pretty mouths and enigmatic smiles, who he could treat like princesses. Or try to, anyway. But Tennessee was as tall as he was, with expressive features and a delighted laugh, and she was even more likely to fall over than Ryan, and Ryan's head apparently hadn't registered any of this because every time he looked at her, his breath got stuck in his throat.

Tennessee rolled onto her stomach in the grass as he walked up, smiling broadly at him. 'Did Z kick you out of the loft, too?'

'Yes,' said Ryan. He lay down alongside her, propping his chin in his hands. 'She shrieked and waved her arms around a lot and then told me to go outside –'

'—before you broke something. Or before it broke you.'

'Exactly. I've never heard Z shriek before, it was – an experience. Am I interrupting you?'

'No, you're fine. I was looking for four-leaf clovers, but I can't find any.'

'I like your crown,' Ryan said, nodding at the daisy chain falling into her eyes.

'Thank you,' said Tennessee, smiling at him. She reached up to pluck it out of her hair, careful not to break any of the stems. She reached over and draped it over Ryan's hair. 'Prince Charming,' she said, beaming. Ryan dipped his head to her, and to his surprise, she leaned across and kissed him on the cheek. 'It suits you.'

Ryan smiled at her, his heart in his throat. He cast around in the grass, picking a buttercup and holding it up to her chin. 'Do you like butter?' he asked, watching her skin turn yellow and gold.

'I do,' said Tennessee, watching him with bright eyes. 'What about you?'

'Sure.' Ryan paused with his eyes on her throat. 'I like you more, though.'

He looked up just as her face broke into a smile. 'Do you really?'

Ryan grinned at her in reply. This wasn't the way it normally went, he thought; all his previous girlfriends had been too shy to look him in the eye by this point, darting looks from his face to the floor and back again. She wasn't any other girl, though, she was Tennessee, and she was watching Ryan with shining eyes, blushing all over her face. They lay smiling at each other until Tennessee laughed a bit, looking away and covering her face with her hand. 'I'm going red, aren't I,' she said. 'I always do.'

Ryan reached over and caught her hand in his, pulling it away from her face. 'It's nice,' he said, and nudged her elbow with his. 'And besides, now we match.'

Tennessee laughed and nudged him back, then inched closer towards him. 'Are you sure this isn't going to go all wrong, too?' she asked, but Ryan didn't think she meant it.

'Not even a little bit,' Ryan replied, grinning. He twisted their fingers into each other and shuffled up closer towards her. Their bodies were pressed together all down one side, their faces very close. 'But I guess I'll try it anyway.'

The risk was worth it, Ryan thought a minute later, because sometimes – sprawled in the grass and kissing Tennessee in the sunshine – it all went pretty right.


End file.
